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The Champions dive into director Rupert Sanders’ live-action remake of that eternal classic of Japanese animation: Ghost in the Shell. Scarlett Johansson jumps into the role of the Major in a reinterpretation of the source material that majorly changes the narrative but is curiously faithful to the visuals of Mamoru Oshii’s original film. Is Johansson enough to win the Champions over? Or does this Hollywood remake leave us wanting our memories wiped? Listen and find out!

The Champions get lost within an endless labyrinthine city of epic proportions full of killer robots in their review of ‘BLAME!’. Based on the legendary manga by Tsutomu Nihei, Netflix and Polygon Pictures have teamed up to bring fans a new cinematic take on the story. Polygon Pictures have shown their strengths in adapting Nihei’s dense style before in their ‘Knights of Sidonia’ TV anime but can they bring ‘BLAME!’ to the mainstream viewer and still make it work? Listen and find out!

The champions celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the podcast with an in-depth discussion of one of the greatest films, animated or otherwise, to come out in the past 121 years. Makoto Shinkai’s most recent grand slam hit arrived in Japanese theaters in 2016 and was finally given a wide release in the United States in April 2017.

The champions give you a full account of how awesome ‘Your Name’ is as well as a rundown of some of their top scenes and most tear-gushing moments. How much did we cry? Listen and find out!

We’d like to thank all of our listeners over the past two years for joining us in our discussions of all the stuff that makes anime mean so much to us, and we hope you’ll continue tuning in to 2D Champions!

The Champions experience the horrors of giant cavities and learn the importance of flossing with tiny people in our review of ‘The Dragon Dentist’. Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki with animation by Studio Khara, ‘The Dragon Dentist’ is a special two-part OVA of sorts that is itself a spin-off of one of the Japan Animator Expo short films. Does ‘The Dragon Dentist’ soar above even our highest expectations? Or does it just feel like a story that we dreamed up under sedation? Listen and find out!

Our review of ‘The Dragon Dentist’ begins around the 30-minute mark. The first half of this is episode is a discussion about Crunchyroll’s reduced premium video quality fiasco.

Okay, now we’re talking. The movie could still be a hot mess but goddamn does the new alien look amazing in action. It’s amazing what one awesome trailer will do to get me completely sucked into the hype tornado again.

Gravity guns, skin-tight battle suits, aliens, and a black sphere that can troll you just as easily as it can resurrect you. This all describes a trip to the local DMV but it also names just a few of the things one encounters when traversing the wacky world of GANTZ.

Based on the immensely popular manga by Hiroya Oku, Gantz: 0 is a full CGI retelling of one of the more popular arcs in Oku’s story. This new film hopes to bring new recruits to the franchise but also tries to please long-time fans as well. Does it succeed? Or are the Champions left to do battle with yet another half-hearted adaptation of a popular seinen manga series? Listen and find out!

This looks fantastic. All of those ships. All of those pew pew’s. I loved Yamato 2199 and I can’t wait to see where they take the legendary ship in this new series. It would be nice to see a North American release of this series sometime in the next few decades as well. Maybe before the eventual Yamato 3199 remake.